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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24306550">Ooze/Heat</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marsalias/pseuds/Marsalias'>Marsalias</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dannymay 2020 [14]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Danny Phantom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Danny has a bad time, Gen, as always, tentacles exist in this story</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 03:02:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,948</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24306550</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marsalias/pseuds/Marsalias</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Ghost Zone has islands.  It also has oceans, and things that lurk in the deep.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dannymay 2020 [14]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1727281</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>241</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It wasn't as if Danny and Vlad weren't paying attention to their surroundings as the fought their way across the Ghost Zone. They were, if only to avoid running into various feature of the skyscape, use said features as weapons, or, on Danny's part, to avoid hitting the smaller, weaker ghosts scattering from their path. The issue was that they weren't paying attention to the <em>implications </em>of said surroundings.</p><p>The Ghost Zone was vast. <em>Immense. </em>Danny and Vlad were powerful. Incredibly powerful, for such young ghosts. In their element, they were a match for just about anyone. Even in a neutral environment, they were formidable. But the Ghost Zone was far from homogeneous.</p><p>Free-floating seas were not as common in the Zone as floating islands, but they weren't unheard of and tended to be just as <em>interesting</em> as their rocky counterparts. Currently, the two half ghosts were fighting adjacent to an amorphous, glowing ocean of liquid ectoplasm and water. It held itself together with surface tension, rippling slightly and throwing off little globs when one of Danny or Vlad's ectoblasts impacted the surface.</p><p>The ocean, as the name suggested, was huge. Perhaps its volume would not equal that of an earthly body of water with the same title, but it would more than rival most lakes.</p><p>(In other words, it was big enough to be inhabited.)</p><p>But back to the fight.</p><p>Danny and Vlad were, in most respects, evenly matched. Vlad was older, more experienced, more knowledgeable, more sure in his powers. He had a longer reach, and a more varied arsenal. Danny was faster, more adaptable, and, though neither he nor Vlad truly realized it, just a little bit smarter. His attacks had more force behind them.</p><p>Vlad, being a full-grown man who took very good care of himself physically, also had a higher endurance. That was what was giving him the edge in this fight. Danny, who hadn't gotten a full night's sleep in two weeks, was tiring.</p><p>So, Danny slipped up. Vlad managed to get a duplicate in behind him, grabbed him by the ankle, and threw him into the glowing sea of ooze. With a shout and a splash, Danny disappeared beneath the surface.</p><p>Vlad waited for him to come back up.</p><p>.</p><p>Hitting water at speed feels like hitting concrete. Liquid doesn't compress. It isn't soft. It hurts.</p><p>But Danny was, sadly, used to getting thrown into concrete. He had the presence of mind to hold his breath. He couldn't, however, keep track of which way the surface was as he tumbled deeper into the sea. When he finally managed to stop, he was highly disoriented.</p><p>Considering the lack of gravity, he couldn't simply try to float to the surface. He couldn't see past the glow of the liquid, so he couldn't follow the light. He could barely even see his own body in the reverse-gloom.</p><p>But he had to do <em>something, </em>otherwise he'd suffocate. Also, the ooze was, well, <em>ooze. </em>It was gross, and it was seeping into his suit.</p><p>(Forgive Danny; he had yet to realize that, as a ghost, he didn't need to breathe.)</p><p>He picked a direction and started flying, as fast as he could. This wasn't very fast, because the liquid the sea was made of was viscous.</p><p>(He was also going in the wrong direction.)</p><p>This was not Danny's element.</p><p>That didn't mean that <em>other </em>creatures didn't find it hospitable.</p><p>Something flexible wrapped around Danny's ankle, halting his progress. A similar item encircled his upper arm. Danny kicked and flailed, but soon his other limbs were held immobile as well. His attempt to summon a ectoblast fizzled out, he didn't know how to keep one going underwater.</p><p>Danny could barely see the things holding him still, but they reminded him of the arms of the ectopusses. More came, holding him more firmly, and others began to probe curiously at his body.</p><p>One looped carelessly around his neck, the end of it trailing gently along his face, and Danny froze. An old, deep instinct told him that the thing he was facing was the more powerful one, here, and advised him to play dead until it got bored. He did.</p><p>Right up until the one creeping over his face pressed its way past his lips and into his mouth. It moved around his cheeks, trying to find a way past his teeth.</p><p>Danny bit it. Hard.</p><p>The creature, possibly out of anger, possibly out of reflex, began to squeeze. Hard.</p><p>This was, frankly, an overload. Too much pain, too much sensation, and all on top of not being able to breathe and his exhaustion from the fight with Vlad.</p><p>Another, different, instinct rose to the surface, his core kicking into overdrive. Ice began to form on his skin and thickened, pushing away the creature's limbs. As soon as they were gone, he curled in on himself protectively, ice cracking like gunshots.</p><p>The ice kept forming.</p><p>.</p><p>It took Vlad longer than it really should have to realize that Danny wasn't going to come back up. He sighed and examined the back of his glove, wondering if he should leave and finish what he had been doing, or if it was worth it to go find Danny.</p><p>It was, from his perspective, likely that Danny was simply hiding.</p><p>But even he couldn't help but be slightly concerned. With another very put-upon sigh, he crafted a spool of fuchsia thread from his ectoplasm, and stuck one end of it to a nearby floating boulder and the other end through his belt. He had no desire to get lost in the glowing sea. Before he breached the surface, he encased himself in a glowing bubble. It would reduce his vision further, but he didn't care to be drenched in ectoplasm.</p><p>It took Vlad some time to find any sign of Danny. That sign, such as it was, was a slightly bluish glow to his right. Vlad rolled his eyes, exasperated that the child had already managed to antagonize and get in a fight with some sea creature.</p><p>The liquid around him grew colder as he approached, to the point where the temperature actually began to put some pressure on his shield. Something huge and tentacled swam by him, away from the cold.</p><p>Something clinked against Vlad's shield.</p><p>No. Not something. Someone. Danny had completely encased himself in ice. <em>Thick </em>ice. Thick enough to distort all of Danny's features to the point where he was recognizable only by coloration.</p><p>Vlad's mouth went dry. He rather doubted this was healthy. He pulled the chunk of ice into his shield, and knocked sharply on its surface. Danny did not respond.</p><p>"Come now, Daniel," said Vlad. "Whatever frightened you is long gone."</p><p>Nothing.</p><p>Vlad frowned slightly, not deigning to show how worried he was, even with no one to see. What was he going to do?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In the middle of the Vlad's lab sat a huge chunk of ghost ice. This was a problem, not least because Daniel was <em>inside </em>the ice. Vlad had no idea how to get him out. The ice wasn't melting on its own.</p><p>At least Vlad's instruments told him that Daniel was still <em>extant </em>within the ice. He hadn't inadvertently ended himself. Vlad couldn't imagine what he'd do if that were the case. He and Daniel might not get along- no, that was putting it too mildly, they were enemies- but Vlad didn't want to be the only one again, the only one to understand what it was like to one day be normal, and the next to be some kind of half-dead freak.</p><p>No. Don't think about that. Instead, focus on how Daniel was just as alive and dead now as he had been earlier today. Focus on solutions. Focus, even, on how he might turn the situation to his advantage, in the future. Daniel was sure to be grateful, wasn't he?</p><p>Vlad stopped pacing and collapsed in a chair. He felt calmer, now, and used his telekinesis to levitate a book to himself from a shelf across the room. He opened it to the section on ghost ice.</p><p>Ghost ice was notoriously difficult to melt and harder than diamond. Although it was cold, and ghosts who made it could make normal ice as well, ghost ice wasn't really ice at all. It was mostly made out of water, yes, but the ectoplasm changed its crystal structure significantly. What's more, there wasn't just <em>one </em>possible crystal structure; it depended on the desires of the ghost forming it.</p><p>It was complicated and frustrating, and even though Vlad had started researching it as soon as Danny had demonstrated the capability, he still didn't entirely understand it.</p><p>The one thing Vlad did know: ghostly fire <em>could </em>melt the stuff. If it was sufficiently hot. Sometimes. It was a tricky proposition.</p><p>Vlad didn't want to burn Daniel. Even if he was being annoying.</p><p>This would be so much easier if Daniel simply thawed himself. Vlad knew he could. At least, he should be able to. Perhaps if Vlad knew <em>why </em>he had frozen himself, he could do something about it, but he didn't, and there really wasn't any way for him to find out.</p><p>Curses.</p><p>He got up and picked up the ice again, taking it to his largest containment unit with a drain. He set the heat inside to high, a pleasant temperature for a hot cored ghost like himself. If fire was the only option, then fire was the only option. He'd just have to go slowly, stop well before he reached Daniel.</p><p>It was slow, exhausting work. Ice might have to be encouraged, but fire hated being held back, especially given the amount of power Vlad had to pour into it to make any progress.</p><p>He stopped periodically to check the time and Daniel's vitals. Daniel's vitals were fine, but he'd better have a truly remarkable excuse in reserve for his family. It had been hours since their fight.</p><p>At last, Vlad had reduced the block ice to thin shell around Daniel. Daniel was curled in on himself, the attitude of his arms indicating that he'd been protecting his head and neck. Something had frightened him. Perhaps he had been attacked by whatever had passed by Vlad in the ectoplasm sea?</p><p>Vlad pursed his lips. It wasn't like Daniel to be timid. Whatever it had been must have shaken him badly. Or perhaps it had been the attack on top of not being able to breathe. Vlad wasn't sure if Daniel knew how optional that particular bodily function was for the two of them.</p><p>Regardless.</p><p>Vlad knocked sharply on the ice, right next to Daniel's ear. The reaction was instantaneous. Daniel twitched and kicked wildly, and the ice shattered. He dragged himself to a corner of the containment chamber with an odd, swimming motion, and started retching, vomiting up a copious amount of water and ectoplasm. As soon as he was done, his body flashed with light and became human. He collapsed.</p><p>Both disgusted and worried, Vlad strode to Daniel's side. He touched Daniel's shoulder, and he flinched violently, twisting to stare up at Vlad with frightened but somehow vacant eyes.</p><p>"Daniel," said Vlad. Daniel's eyelids fluttered, but otherwise he didn't respond. Vlad reached out to touch him again, but this time, instead of flinching away, Daniel leaned into the touch, rubbing his cheek against his arm.</p><p>He slurred something that might have been interpreted as <em>warm.</em></p><p>Vlad sighed and rolled his eyes, secretly relieved. "Yes, yes," he said, maneuvering himself behind Daniel and picking him up. "Let's get you warmed up, and then we can go back to fighting or whatnot."</p>
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